CLC Communiqué No.8

 CLC COMMUNIQUÉ No.8

October 2016

Dear Community of South Africa,

All Africa Assembly

The Assembly of national communities of CLC in Africa will take place in Kigali, Rwanda from 17th November 2016 to 21st November2016. This is an important event for all of us in CLC.

As members of CLC SA we are members of World CLC as we are one world community. The world community is divided into geographical regions, largely continents, but in some areas there are 2 regions in one continent, due to distance, language and number of national communities. In Africa, although we have Francophone and Anglophone communities we are one region. Every 5 years we have an assembly of all the communities in CLC, the last was in Lebanon in 2013, when Fr. Graham, Sabie and Kaye represented CLC SA. In the years between one world assembly and the next national communities are expected to work on the resolutions of the world assembly. Regional assemblies are held to enable national communities to come together and share their experiences, progress and problems around the resolutions, and map a way forward for implementation in their region. So the Assembly in Kigali is looking at the progress and problems in implementing the resolutions on the frontiers identified in Lebanon and their application to Africa.

The frontiers or areas of action that we were called to respond to in Lebanon are Family, Globalisation, Ecology and Youth. We received input from most groups at the end of last year on activities around those frontiers and submitted to the planning team. In the meantime, we have had the documents from Pope Francis, Laudate Si on ecology, and Amoris Laetitia on the family. As CLC in Africa we need to interrogate those for application and implementation in the African context. This is one of the tasks of the Africa Assembly. The assembly sessions, informed by the theme, Choosing Life through the Seamless Life Span, will pick up on them. There are other structural and administrative matters from the Africa Assembly in Doula that also need to be debated.

National Exco feels strongly that CLCSA needs to be an active presence and voice in the Africa Assembly. We are the oldest national community and the most culturally diverse community, which makes it imperative for our voice to be heard at Kigali. National Exco on your behalf is sending our EA, Fr Graham Pugin, and our representative on the Africa regional committee, Sabie, to represent us at the AAA.

Please feel free to share with Fr. Graham or Sabie your thoughts and feelings re the frontiers from the Lebanon Assembly and the two papal documents. Also please all pray that this assembly will produce some practical guidelines for the way forward for CLC on the frontiers.

Kaye

National Co-ordinator

We continue with

The General Principles of CLC

PART ONE Paragraph 9 of OUR CHARISM

9. Since the spirituality of our Community is centered on Christ, we see the role of Mary in relation to Christ: she is the model of our own collaboration in Christ’s mission. Mary’s co-operation with God begins with her “yes” in the mystery of the Annunciation Incarnation. Her effective service as shown in her visit to Elizabeth and her solidarity with the poor as reflected in the Magnificat, make her an inspiration for our action for justice in the world today. Mary’s co-operation in her Son’s mission, continued all through her life, inspires us to give ourselves totally to God in union with Mary, who by accepting the designs of God became our mother and the mother of all. Thus we confirm our own mission of service to the world received in baptism and confirmation. We honour Mary, the Mother of God, in a special way, and we rely on her intercession in fulfilling our vocation.

We pray for Dr Boitelo Letsolo who died last week in Gauteng. Boitelo was a recent member of CLC and a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Becoming aware of the presence of God…

Mandy for the Exco